Sonia backs Manmohan on US-India civil nuclear cooperation deal

New Delhi, Nov 17 (ANI): Congress party President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi today told participants at the 17th All-India Congress Committee (AICC) that she fully supported the US-India civil nuclear cooperation deal. The nuke-deal will not have an impact on India’s atomic programme, but enable the country to acquire fuel and technology and help it to get much-needed electricity for faster growth, Gandhi said. A day after the Left parties gave clearance to the government to approach the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for working out an India-specific safeguards agreement related to the 2005 US-India civil nuclear pact, Gandhi said that while there were differences with allies, but efforts were on by the government to evolve a consensus through discussions. Endorsing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurance to the country that the agreement would not in any way affect the strategic nuclear programme, she said, From the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, the policy has been one of self-reliance. International cooperation on our own terms is an inalienable part of this policy of self-reliance”. Gandhi also said the deal is aimed at getting the much-needed power for industry, agriculture, cities and rural areas through the help of several friendly countries. The Congress was committed to a comprehensive universal nuclear disarmament, an action plan of which was presented by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to the United Nations in 1988, she added. The Prime Minister, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, Congress Working Committee (CWC) members, state Presidents and AICC office-bearers are among those attending the day-long meeting, the first to be held after the AICC Plenary in Hyderabad in January last year. (ANI)